I Think I See A Glimmer
by Contrary-Miss-Mary
Summary: After a disaster of giant proportions, five survivors must find a way to move past what has happened and into a new future. Red/Jack and Bakerella goodness inside!
1. Chapter 1

**Part One: The Way You Learn To Cope**

**Chapter One**

"... The five travelers finally left the woods and once again found the sunlight, where they hoped to live happily ever after", the Baker said quietly as he reached the crumbled ruins of his house, the unofficial leader of a band of misfit survivors. They were quite a motley bunch: a bloodthirsty girl, an animal-crazed boy, a former princess, and a motherless child; all enchanted by the reminiscent tale of a lonesome baker.

The spell of the story was broken by the appearance of the haphazard cottage, and the group was quickly stopped in its tracks.

"I guess that Witch wasn't lying when she said the giant made a mess of things, huh?" the girl breathed, fiercely scrunching the hem of her skirt in her tiny palm.

The princess gracefully placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, a silent assurance that all would be fine in time. With the help of the boy Jack, the Baker pried open the splintered front door to reveal a kitchen in a shape of utter disarray. Cracked baking pans littered the floor, and the entire room seemed dusted with a thin layer of flour.

"We've a great amount of work to do," sighed Cinderella, breaking the silence. She scanned the room carefully before turning to the others with a delicate smile. "How do you suppose we should begin?"

"I say we should split up, try to find out what we've got to do," Jack spoke up.

The Baker raised an eyebrow and instinctively clutched his son closer to his chest. "Nothing good seems to come from splitting up. Should we not stay together, and see what we can accomplish as a group?"

"We could split up into small groups, so that we have someone to stay with, even if we lose the way!" Red offered. The Baker considered her proposal cautiously, but only agreed to her suggestion after catching a coaxing look from the Princess. "All right," he sighed, "But we will rest tonight."

Sleeping quarters were settled; Cinderella, Red, and the baby would stay in the master bedroom, while the Baker and Jack would sleep in the living room. The groups parted, but not before Cinderella pulled the Baker to the side for a word. "Shall I go off to market tomorrow?" she asked. "We really should see if everyone in town is all right."

"No," the Baker said. "A trip like that would be far too dangerous with the road in such a shamble, and even if the townsfolk are fine, they would never go out after such a scare. We've enough fresh food here to last us a fortnight; then we can go to market."

* * *

The party slept in late the next day, too weary from battle and loss to awaken at a proper time. The Baker woke first, and headed to the kitchen to fix a light meal of squashed pastries. The others groggily came to, and in an hour, all stood together on the living room rug, chattering as they decide what to do next.

Cinderella crossed the room to the wide open doors of the supply closet where a still intact broom patiently awaited her tender touch. As she moved, she said, "I will stay here and begin clearing the house, so we will at least be able to sleep the oncoming week in a clean home."

"I will care for my son, and see to it that he does not cry anymore than need be," the Baker said, tenderly glancing down at the bundle in his arms, still sleeping soundly. Jack, who had somehow found his way to a smashed window, peered curiously out of it and into the remains of a lush garden.

"That witch said that her garden belonged to us now, right? Red and I could go exploring to make sure she didn't leave anything there to hurt us," he suggested, sneaking a hopeful glance at the girl in question.

The very mention of the Witch sent a cool chill down the Baker's spine. He turned sharply to the boy and silently shook his head. Jack's face fell slightly, not expecting a reaction quite so harsh. Red took a step forward, a thoughtful look on her face. "We can stop by Jack's house instead, to see if anything useful survived. I'm think I've passed by it before on the way here, and it really isn't far." She sent a meaningful look to Jack, although he couldn't quite decipher what that meaning was. He nodded feverishly, not willing to let on to his confusion.

The Baker hesitantly agreed and the youths rushed out of the house and down the jumbled road. He softly rocked the baby as he headed off to his old bedroom, sighing at the crib inside. In the destruction of the day before, it had been reduced to little more than a pile of sticks. He fumbled to sit on a pillow in a condition only slightly better than the crib.

_My poor son_, he thought as he stroked the peachy skin of the little cheek. Looking at that peaceful face, he could hardly regret the choices he and his wife had made to bring the child into the world. If only she was here now, she would know what to do. _I wish..._

The Baker never had the chance to make his wish, as Cinderella creaked open the door at that moment to check in on him. "Are you all right?" She asked, tucking a strand of dark hair beneath her dirty headscarf. It was strange for the Baker to see the princess in such a mundane atmosphere, despite her insistence that she was merely a fortunate peasant. He couldn't help thinking that despite all that had happened, she looked peaceful with a broom in hand, and more natural in ordinary clothing.

"I'm fine" he said, with a careful nod. "As fine as anyone could be." Cinderella set down her broom and took a seat beside him. She rested her hand on his shoulder and said,"Thank you for your willingness to accept us into your home. We will all live happily here, I can tell."

The Baker smiled then, for the first time in a while, and the two sat still, gently listening to the baby's quiet coos.

* * *

_**Hallo! Welcome to my new multi chapter! This book is three parts, and I've decided to write a full part before each serialization. Part one has 6 full chapters, and I hope you enjoy them! **_

_**I love to read your comments and critiques, so pleeeeeease leave me some, darlings!**_


	2. Chapter 2

**Part 1**

_**Chapter 2**_

Jack could swear he could hear his heart pounding in his ears as he and Red headed down the dirt road and away from their new house. It must have been from all the excitement from the previous day. Or maybe he was getting sick from the heat. Jack stared at the back of Red's head as her charming ringlets flounced around. He blinked. It had to be the heat.

"We're going to the Witch's house first, right?" Red suddenly stopped and Jack hit her back with a soft thump. Jack looked up sharply, jolted out of his mind by her surprising announcement. The adults surely wouldn't be pleased if they went. Why, they seemed uneasy at the mere mention of the Witch. However, when he relayed this fact, Red frowned and said, "We agreed to break that rule. I mean, you _nodded_." Jack opened his mouth to confess to his earlier confusion, but was instantly halted by a dubious look from Red. He hadn't know this girl for very long, but he already knew that look. He'd seen it once before, and it was certainly not one that pleased him.

"Unless you're too frightened of course. I would want to scare you," she tutted nonchalantly.

Red hit his weak spot, and try as he may, he had no chance of recovery. "I'm not afraid of anything," he scoffed defensively. "And certainly not that Witch. She's gone now, and can do no more harm to us than-than this tree!" He kicked a nearby trunk with the tip of his toe.

"Then it's settled," Red decided with a satisfied smirk." We'll see what we can find at your house, and then sneak over to the Witch's". He was almost too easy to tease, fuming over the slightest doubt of his courage.

The couple walked steadily up a path that grew increasingly more tarnished, Jack leading with a determined march. A triumphant Red trotted closely behind. Loose branches tore at Red's stockings, marring the thin fabric, and a breeze of dirt matted Jack's ruddy hair relentlessly, but still they pushed on.

Finally, after what seemed like hours of walking, they arrived at Jack's old house, or at least what remained of it. What had once been a small, well-furnished cottage was now a small, well-furnished pile of rubble.

Jack stood in his tracks as he saw the house for the first time, and sucked in a sharp breath. Jack took a step toward the grim skeleton of his old life, and a wave of dizziness washed over him. All he could see was a sea of cracked glass and sooty clothes. He felt a sting in his heart, but no tears came. Even after all that had happened, the idea that his house, his home for nearly eighteen years, was gone seemed impossible.

Red nudged a cracked mirror with the toe of her shoe, allowing Jack a brief grieving period. She offered no hand to hold, no shoulder to cry on, but have him the best gift she could offer: silent understanding. She knew what it felt like to see a destroyed home. Whether she realized it or not, her simple gesture helped to soften the edges of his hurt. He shot Red an odd glance: a look of pain and gratitude and something else nearly unnoticeable that he even couldn't have described.

Red caught the funny look, but unable to decipher it, gingerly clucked her tongue.  
"Well, we'd best get started."

-

Jack and Red walked out of the house with an armful each of items only in slight disrepair: A crooked brush, a dented bucket, a sack of flattened gold coins. Much to Jack's dismay, there was no sign of Milky White anywhere. Red supposed she was still somewhere in the woods, although Jack remained doubtful.

As they walked home, Red was struck with realization that they had spent very little time talking that day. Normally, she started squirming after any small lull in conversation, but not today. In fact, the thought that she hadn't been uncomfortable made her more uneasy than ever.

"Hey." Jack started, thankfully breaking the silence. "What do you think will happen to us now? Everything's different than it was yesterday." Red considered consider this, and began with a sincere nod.

"I dunno really. The only thing we can do is keep going. I'm gonna be a grown up soon, and I suppose that means you will be too. Until then, we have the adults, and they'll help us." She stopped to adjust the jumble in her arms before continuing on. "They both seem nice enough, and it's easy to tell that the really care about what happens to us."

"And that's why we're going to go against their rules on the first day, huh?" Jack muttered, just loud enough for Red to hear and ignore.

As the pair arrived back to the Bakers house, they quietly dropped their belongings off at the back door and snuck to the fence separating their house from the Witch's garden. There was a large hole in the wire, and Red quickly wiggle through. Jack had a slight deal of trouble fitting his lanky limbs through the short, squat hole, but he finally crossed to the other side. His suspenders, however, did not fare quite so well. They caught on the ragged edge of the fence, and in his struggle for freedom, launched him face first in the mud. Red doubled over in laughter before tossing him her ragged apron.

"Don't worry if you get it dirty," she smiled with feigned kindness. "That was worth it."

After quickly recovering and giving Red a much deserved ankle kick ("Still worth it," she winced defiantly), Jack looked around at the withered remains of a foreboding garden. His stomach turned as he noticed a crushed pod beneath his boot. Beans.

"Let's be swift, eh?" he said uneasily. Red noticed his voice had fallen into a slight hush, but only offered a positive nod.

Red lead the way past the dark alcoves of the garden, bursting with flattened. She tripped once over some low creeping vines, but was already up and moving by the time Jack tried to catch her. Suddenly, she stopped dead in her tracks. Jack looked up to see a mess of a hut, reduced to little more than an island of firewood. Varicolored liquids pooled around shards of broken glass, and empty bags of seeds lay scattered about. As Red rummaged through the dirt with the tip of her shoe, Jack suddenly spotted an ancient looking book in a pile of loose papers. Strange words decorated the sheets, words he'd never seen before. But strangely enough, Jack to almost hear them ringing in his head, and he suddenly knew what they were: magic. Almost as if in a trance, he reached to pick the book up, but was stopped by a hesitant hand on forearm.

"Don't," Red whispered solemnly. "Maybe it's a good idea to go home after all." Despite her initial urging, he could see that she wasn't as comfortable with the Witch as she pretended to be.

Jack stood up quickly, and nodded in agreement. He really did want to know what was out here, now that he'd seen it... but that was an adventure that he would have to take alone. He slipped his hands back into his pockets, and walked beside Red out of the hypnotizing ruins. Neither said a word until they got back to the back of the house. Red picked up her salvaged items before Jack turned to her sheepishly.

"Thanks for coming with me to my house. I mean, I could have handled it by myself, but thanks anyway," he said.

A smirk spread across Red's face, and a rosy glow tinted her dimpled cheeks. "Yeah, well, I'm just glad you have some decent clothes now. You look foolish in those." She fished a knit cap out of her stack, and tossed it squarely on his face. She laughed gleefully before running back into the house leaving Jack alone on the doorstep. He glanced back at the Witch's house, tempting and strange, from over his shoulder before picking up his things and racing inside.

**In all honesty, Jack/Red is where my heart lies, so this was very fun to write! If you have the time, please drop me comment/critique, because they really help me to see what I'm getting right and wrong, so reading this can be more enjoyable for you guys.**

**See ya next chapter!**


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